Musical reflects reality of war
10:20am Thursday 4th September 2008
AS rehearsals get under way for The Courtyard’s autumn musical, Oh What a Lovely War, one scene the cast is running through gives a powerful taste of the tone of the play.
It involves an increasingly exasperated drill sergeant teaching three raw recruits, clearly useless at anything military, how to use a bayonet.
A scene that is funny – and there are loads of brilliant scenes like this, and they’re meant to be funny – simultaneously takes a snipe at the reality of the First World War, fought by soldiers with no experience and poor training who did not, in effect, stand a chance.
“It captures, too, the incredible spirit these young men had,” says director Adrian McDougall.
“They soon realised what they were going into; saw their friends going over the top, only to be killed. Something in their human spirit, though, enabled them to cope. That comes over in the songs they sang, the letters they wrote, their banter.”
Often described as a comedic musical journey through the events of the First World War, Oh What a Lovely War presents a challenge to both director and actors, mixing as it does farce, in comedy sketches and songs like Pack up Your Troubles, with the harsh reality of war, presented via multimedia images and film footage.
“The casting for this production was especially important, because of the need for the actors to be musicians and to be able to work as a close-knit team,” says Adrian.
“This will be a challenge, but it is so well written that the music and script do a lot of the work.
“It is an emotional piece, and incredibly moving, but it is not meant to be played in a sentimental way.
“This isn’t a play that is trying to fool an audience into thinking they are in the trenches, that the actors are soldiers – hence the pierrot costumes used in the original version.
“The challenge is to play it well, allow the audience to experience it in their own way and draw their own conclusions.
“We’re hoping, too, that students will come along to one of our workshops during the run, to meet the cast and discuss the issues and styles used in the show.”
When Joan Littlewood’s highly acclaimed production came to the stage in 1963, audiences felt it was as much a comment on Vietnam as on the First World War.
McDougall says this production highlights – through the multimedia images – the social changes and the conflicts (the Second World War, Vietnam, Afghanistan) since 1918.
“This is, though, a play very much about the First World War, which deserves to be remembered for what it was,” says Adrian.
“The 90th anniversary of the Armistice is a driving force behind it. I think it is important that people know what they owe their way of life to.
“I think the play allows the audience to pause and reflect on that.
“One of the cast was saying that when he’d asked his own mother about it, she told him his grandfather was too young to fight in the First World War and too old by the Second.
“If that hadn’t been the case, his whole family history might have been different. He might not be in this play today.”
Oh What A Lovely War opens at The Courtyard on Thursday, September 11, and runs until Saturday, September 20 (every evening and two matinees).
Tickets available at courtyard.org.uk or from the box office on 01432 340555.
For details of the student workshops, contact the box office.